20 days in the Baltic

I really didn’t get a whole lot of time to explore the Baltic as I was doing a lot of training and getting ready to take over the ms Noordam 20 days later.

What I did see of the Baltic was amazing, the weather was really good and the views were amazing. Work was good and I have a strong feeling that I will be back in the Baltic in the future.

One thing that was really annoying was the fact that I didn’t have a Russian visa or seaman’s book so i couldn’t get off the ship in Russia. next time.

View from the walls of the old town

It is an amazing place, although we had got used to paying Eastern European prices for everything and now we were back onto the tourist rates.

Tower

We walked the wall of old town and had dinner inside. We stayed at a really cool hostel and the owners known as Croatian “ma” and “pa” for their homely appeal and shot of honey port (or something like that) on entry.

Ryan on the Wall

Ryan booked his ferry ticket to Italy as he was going to learn Italian and make some wine for a few months.

This was good bye for a while but with the interwebs it is easy to stay in contact. I left my bike at the hostel, I told them i would be back in 30 days, i don’t know if it translated but we will see.

We checked into a hotel for the night and all five of us slept. The next day everyone slept in but I needed to get my medical completed for the ship, this is harder than you might think as I was told there were only 3 or so doctors in Croatia who were licensed to do it. I was lucky to get some help from an emergency doctor who made some calls and found one of these doctors. The next day I had my medical done and off to Holland America Line.

We then planned to continue traveling with our English friends to Split and spend some time there in an apartment. Here is another thing to remember, high speed trains everywhere don’t take bikes. So we missed another train from Zagreb to Split; they got it and Ryan and I cycled to the bus station and managed to get transport that way. easy.

We then spent an awesome five days in Split overlooking the water and a walk to the beach. It was a really good time and I think what was needed after EXIT.

It was time to say good bye to our English friends and get the bus to Dubrovnik where we would spend sometime before I flew to the Baltic for training on the ms Eurodam.

EXIT

It was far to hot to camp but thats what we had tickets for. We stayed with the English kids that we met on the train and then Dan and Jess from home were there so they stayed with us as well.

Camp site

EXIT was 4 nights; this is far to long for a festival but was really good fun. Below are some generic photos because mine did not come out to well.

In there somewhere

We were refused entry to about 4 trains, then rode to the outskirts of Bratislava to buy a car….we were frustrated.

Bratislava has a rule that you need to have a local license to purchase a car so that was out. We then sprinted back to the train station and got the 11pm train (the first train we missed was at 8am). The 11pm train was coming from Germany and had a bike section so we were saved.

not looking good for the bikes

We got into Budapest, Hungary at some point (it is a but fuzzy) and then there were many backpackers all heading to Novi Sad, Serbia for the Exit Festival…..we were worried about the train and getting our bikes on.

So when the train finally arrived we ran past the guards and threw our bikes on. Then we chained them to the train so they could not be thrown off.

still smiling somehow...

The bikes stayed on and we were lucky to meet some English people who let us in their booth thing.

locked to the train

Ryan got hauled off by the Serbian Army at the boarder crossing as they took one look at him and instantly came to the conclusion he was running drugs…..forgivable mistake.

We finally made it to Novi Sad for a four day music festival in a castle on the Danube.

We headed off and managed to get out of the city more easily than we were expecting however this is where it got fun. The cycle way from Vienna to Bratislava was nothing like what we had been used to from Passau to Vienna along the Danube.

So we made a few wrong turns and ended up on an island in the middle of the Danube, then had to turn around, climb some steps to get onto a bridge and then continue to make our way up the river. There were also a few points where the cycle way disappeared, but appeared further down the road, it was not as well signed ether which made it more difficult. Either way we managed to make it to Bratislava which was quite different to Austria even though it was right on the boarder.

It was a bit longer ride than we thought it would be but this was ok as we left early in the morning and our hostel was in the center of town which was handy.

one of the many old buildings in Vienna

I stayed in the Wombat hostel, guess what he primary nationality was there? Australians. But it was good fun, a defiantly think that hostels need a bar, it makes them far better.

random jazz festival

While I flew to Rotterdam Ryan flew to Greece, Eos to party down for a week.

ms Eurodam

I flew to Amsterdam and got the train to Rotterdam. I staid where I was a month before when we were cycling through Rotterdam, it was just across the river from where the ms Eurodam was docked. That day I went and watched the opening ceremony (it was a long day) then the next day I went on board for a tour and interview with the existing On-Board Marketing Manager and the Seattle Office Manager. So I looked around the ship which is shiny and new talked about the position.

the ms Eurodam opening

Anyway all went well and a few days later I got an email saying I got the job and they wanted me to start immediately. This was a problem as my medical was not valid and I still had another month of traveling to do with Ryan.

But once I have got all this stuff I will be boarding the ms Eurodam for 20 days training in the North Sea and then will be flying back to the Mediterranean to board the ms Noordam where I will be until I cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean.

Not sure when I will be home. Maybe February.